Healthsibu. Latest Health News

“Hardening of the arteries” is the way people have described the vascular (blood vessel) problem called multi-infarct dementia. In the past, this colloquial description was a good one, because experts thought that “hardened” and partially clogged arteries produced this particular form of dementia. Today we know that this vascular type of dementia is caused not by partially blocked arteries, but by completely blocked ones. A series of small strokes (or in medical terminology, multi-infarcts) is what produces the changes in memory and thinking.
A stroke occurs when a blood vessel feeding the brain becomes blocked, the blood supply is … Continue Reading

Barry Gurland, director of geriatric psychiatry at Columbia University and an expert on dementia’s clinical course, thinks the intellectual losses that occur as this dreadful condition advances are like peeling an onion. As time goes by, each cognitive milestone is stripped away in the reverse of the order in which it was attained. So first a person loses the mental skills acquired in adolescence – complicated abstract thought – then what was learned in elementary school – reading, the ability to add and subtract. Finally, the milestones reached at ages two and one are gone – dressing, forming sentences, … Continue Reading

Starting school

The child should be prepared well in advance so that he anticipates it in a positive way. The parents can take him to school beforehand, showing him around and perhaps meeting the teachers. He should be involved in purchasing any requirements for school, such as a schoolbag, books or clothes. Sometimes it is beneficial for him to meet other children of the same age, who are starting school at the same time.

Starting creche or kindergarten

Starting kindergarten or daycare is just … Continue Reading

It is a fact that many painkillers are addictive. However, it is extremely rare for people who use painkillers as painkillers to become addicted to them. Addiction is much, much more likely to develop in people who take painkillers not for pain relief, but in order to get a lift, escape from reality or for some other such reason. If you take painkillers for pain, you will find that you can stop taking them quite easily if, and when, your pain is relieved by some other means. Provided you stop them gradually over a couple of days, … Continue Reading

Extreme cold from carbon dioxide, snow or liquid nitrogen will also result in death of the warty tissue, which sloughs away and the underlying skin heals usually without a scar.

Warts near the nailbed are prone to come back.

Plantar warts are often called papillomas and these are warts on the soles of the feet.

They are the same as warts elsewhere but because of the pressure of the foot against the ground or the shoe, the warty tissue is forced inwards and this presses on the sensitive nerve endings in … Continue Reading

Metatarsalgia involves a breakdown in the horizontal arch of the foot. This arch is formed by the heads of the metatarsals, the long bones of the foot.

When this arch is weak, the ball of the foot flattens when weight is put on it. Pressure of the heads of the metatarsals pushing into the pad on the ball of the foot causes a painful callus.

This is a mechanical problem and requires a mechanical solution. A … Continue Reading

Most women with symptoms of bladder irritation will lose these symptoms within a few days, whether treated or not. Those that have been given treatment for their nerves will get better and both they and the doctor may believe the problem is therefore of nervous origin.

In those cases where the urine shows no bacteria, the true cause of the symptoms lies in the urethra or at the base of the bladder where the ureters enter. This is called the trigone.

Often, the first attack of urinary infection … Continue Reading

The main technique used in this endeavour is the randomised clinical trial. Here doctors select a fairly uniform group of people—all within a certain age range, with similar types and extent of cancer and about the same degree of physical fitness. To further reduce any possible bias, the people in this already fairly uniform group are allotted randomly (by chance) to one or other of the treatments to be compared. This could be done, say, with the flip of … Continue Reading

I’M CONFASED ABOUT THE G.I. OF RICE. SOME PEOPLE SAY IT HAS A HIGH G.L FACTOR, OTHERS SAY IT IS LOW.

Rices in Australia usually have a high G.L factor because their amylose content is low. On page 34 we described how amylose is a form of starch which is more difficult to digest and results in lower G.L factors. Doongara and Basmati, are high in amylose and have relatively low G.L factors. You can guess at the G.L factor of rice by its appearance after cooking. If it is sticky and individual grains clump … Continue Reading

Climate. The effects of cold on the fat loss response to exercise have been studied extensively and have been reviewed by Professor Roy Shephard of Toronto University in Canada.9 Basically results show that repeated and prolonged moderate exercise in a cold environment creates a greater energy deficit than in a warm environment. Shephard’s group demonstrated this with Canadian soldiers on manoeuvres in the Arctic. The fat loss of these men was compared with that of soldiers in mainland Canada in the summer, whilst on an identical dietary and exercise regime.

Explanations for the extra effects … Continue Reading